(Reuters) -Some of the 300 Russian fishermen stranded on an ice floe drifting in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Western Pacific have refused evacuation, Russia’s emergency ministry said on Wednesday.
A rescue operation with helicopters and vessels has brought 109 of the fishermen ashore, but some refused to be rescued, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
“Some extreme sports enthusiasts are not going to leave without a catch under any circumstances,” the ministry said.
It posted a video showing fishermen walking on snowy ice away from the rescuers. It was unclear why so many fishermen had gathered at the location.
About a 10 metre (33 feet) ice crack formed from the Russian village of Malki to the mouth of the Dolinka River in the Sakhalin region, setting the fishermen adrift in the Sea of Okhotsk, the ministry said earlier.
Winters in the Sakhalin region in Russia’s Far East, which comprises the Sakhalin Island and the chain of the Kuril Islands, are cold, snowy and long, often lasting more than five months.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Tom Hogue and Michael Perry)
